New Oil Rig Explosion in Gulf of Mexico from Mariner Energy

New Oil Rig Explosion in Gulf of Mexico from Mariner Energy – A lot of people are worried as another oil rig explosion has sparked in the Gulf of Mexico. Many fear that another version of the “BP oil spill” might happen again which started when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig owned by BP exploded last April.

It started past 11 am, Thursday morning when an oil rig has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil production platform 380, which is owned by Mariner Energy, a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico based in Houston. Initially, 13 people have been reported to be onboard when the oil rig explosion happened. The US Coast Guard later said that all 13 of them were successfully rescued in a commercial vessel. Below is the first picture of the Mariner Energy oil rig explosion at Vermilion Bay caught by Culture Map Houston:

Two hours after the Vermilion oil rig explosion, Mariner Energy released a press release statement that no oil spill has been reported after they conducted an initial flyover of the incident saying: “Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident. The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.”

Back in Congress, Scott Josey, the president and CEO of Mariner Energy, received a call from the House Energy and Commerce committee demanding for a brief background of what happened in the Vermilion oil rig explosion. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are the ones assigned to lead the Vermilion oil rig explosion investigation. Shares of Mariner Energy tumbled just minutes after the reported incident.

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